The Two Halves of the Oddball Duo
by Mirr0rM0ve
Summary: Two random episodes about the infamous Oddball duo of the Karasuno Boy's Volleyball Club.
1. Shorter Half of the Oddball Duo

**_The Shorter Half of the Oddball Duo_**

They ignored it at first. Those small occurrences where their favorite little spiker, Shoyo Hinata was talking to girls here and there. It all started on the last days of January. During lunch breaks, like a volleyball geek he was, Hinata would normally be on the second gym or an open space to practice receives against a wall. But this time around, the other members of the boy's volleyball club noticed that Hinata was spending more time of his lunch breaks in his classroom talking idly. Not that they had any problems with their orange-hair socializing, but it was so strange to see him doing less of volleyball.

It is normal to have friends outside of club activities after all. Still, day by day, it became somewhat more difficult to look at. At first it started something ordinary, like with having lunches together with those casual chit-chat. The next stage was walking together with Hinata and there is an apparent increase with encounters with girls, those 'hello, Hinata-kun' and those giggles that follows. The third stage included random instances where Hinata's hand, hair, or clothes were grasped followed by obvious excuses that their ginger-head would cast aside as accidents. It kind of irked them at sometimes Hinata himself would apologize.

"Sorry." Hinata would put on his most clueless smile. Then, the girl would nod her head and be on their way. They could have sworn that one time they heard a fangirly voice saying: _"GYAH! I touched him."_

This went on along with February and Valentine's Day.

"Guys, I think it's getting serious." Sugawara would say with obvious worry for Hinata.

"I think you're overreacting, Suga-san." Nishinoya patted his senior's back. "Besides, Hinata doesn't seem bothered by it."

"I guess."

At this time, Kageyama entered their club room and proceeded into emptying his bag full of Valentine's chocolates with a definitive 'tch' at the bench.

"You little scumbag. How much did you get? That's a crime against all men." Tanaka-senpai who seem to be upset that he didn't get that much snapped at Kageyama.

"You can have them if you want." Kageyama offered.

"So cruel... don't you know how much effort those girls did just to give you these chocoloates?" Nishinoya scolds. (He got a hefty some himself. But all obligatory.)

"I didn't ask them to do that." Kageyama as he picked up one and tried some out of guilt.

"Eh? Counting Valentine's Day chocolates, huh? Sounds fun." Sugawara joined them. "But it looks like Kageyama's the clear winner."

"Yeah, he's the type that's popular with the ladies." Their team captian, Sawamura followed suit, as he examined the pile of chocolates at the bench. "Yep, clear winner. But pick those up."

By the time the seniors were off to the second gymnasium, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi came in.

"How much did you two get?" Tanaka and Nishinoya seemed to be eager to count and compare the Valentine's chocolate of their teammates stayed, claiming that they would just help Kageyama with clearing up his chocolates.

"Chocolates you mean? Who cares." Tsukishima sighed apparently he seemed to be drained of energy for today.

"Tsukki got seventeen." Yamaguchi said helpfully. "And I got nine."

"Okay, now all that's left is Asahi-san's and Shoyo's." Noya said. Those remaining two took their time to get to the club room, so they went ahead to the second gym.

The day was just a normal practice day. Coach Ukai only gave them their assignments and they were left to do their own. Asahi came a bit later looking dejected. And his response when asked about today was:

"I didn't get any." (He didn't get as single chocolate, not even obligatory ones (not counting Kiyoko's), in his entire high school life)

"There- there- I didn't get much either." says the Captain. (He may or may not gotten a true-feelings chocolates this year though).

"By the way, what's keeping Hinata? It's almost time to go home." At that very moment, the door opened, revealing Karasuno's bright ray of sunshine himself. He looked spent, a rare sight as their daily training regime doesn't usually drain this much from a ball of energy that is Hinata. He was still in his school uniform dragging what seems to be a large sack of something. And that something would be very obvious by now.

"Sorry I'm late, but I can't get all of this to the clubroom and then I-"

"Hinata." Captain Daichi gave Hinata's shoulders a firm squeeze. "You're late. We expect you to come on time next time, okay? Guys we're done for today."

"Y-yes sir." Hinata tensed sensing that the captain was in a bad mood.

The other two third years followed with Suga sighing. "And to think I was worried."

Hinata concluded that something must have happened when he was gone and he decided to get help from the second years instead.

"Tanaka-san, Noya-san, could you help me with-"

"Hinata, you traitor!" Tanaka ran ahead weeping.

"Hinata... I'll be leaving now." _Hinata?_ Since when did Noya-san ever call him Hinata? It's always Shoyo.

The other second years followed suit with Ennoshita reminded him that he was on cleaning duty. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi follwed them wordlessly.

"Kageyama and Yachi-san, what did I do?" Hinata asked. His two club mates looked at each other.

"Kageyama? Yachi?" Hinata tried again.

"No idea... must be busy with homework or junk. Anyway, how are you going to get all of those chocolate home?"

"Really, Kageyama-kun?" Yachi commented.

* * *

The next day...

"Takeda-sensei was nice enough to drive me home with his car. That was so much chocolate.." Tanaka and Nishinoya heard the voice of their favorite kohai talking with Yachi on the corridors.

"We owe him an apology."

"Yeah."

That was their plan until they got to the gymnasium later. Arriving, they make out of the form of the shorter half of the oddball duo surrounded by girls and disabling him to practice. Tanaka and Nishinoya had an nonverbal agreement to proceed and try their hardest to ignore the ginger head. Kageyama followed them having lost his importance on the scene as apparently a setter was not needed at the moment.

Hinata who was at verge of suffocation noticed that his teammates were all taking a break on the benches watching him suffer.

"Captain! Captain!" His apparent complaints about the current situation has fallen in the deaf ears of his harem and his teammates.

Captain Sawamura gave him a beam. (The question of it having malicious intent depends on the observer.) "You seem to be having fun there, Hinata. We'll just going to have to take a break."

"Captain! Not you too, Kageyama!" Hinata called out amidst of the girls who wanted his attention.

"Who would have thought that our Hinata is popular with the ladies." Sugawara sighed like a doting mother would. "But shouldn't we intervene, now?"

"Nah, let's just say that it's kind of my punishment to him for yesterday. Anyway, if we're going to have 'fangirl' issues here I thought it would be because of Tsukishima or Kageyama." Daichi laughed.

"I wonder how that happened. I mean, yeah, I guess it's pretty amazing when you see him play volleyball. But this much?"

"Poor, Hinata-kun..." Yachi sighed knowing that more than half of this is her fault. But all she could do was keep quiet to herself for making that mistake. but she know she had to apologize for this later.

* * *

 _"Yachi-chan, you're one of the managers of the Boy's Volleyball Club, right?" Yachi, who was not used to being talked to that much, could pretty much guess by now what were the intentions of the girls that approached her. Yachi didn't listen to the prologue of their request and decided to wait for the bottom line: 'Please, introduce us to Kageyama.'_

 _"Could you introduce us to Hinata-kun?" Yachi didn't expect that, and being taken by surprise she replied without much thought._

 _"Why him?"_

 _The girls exchange glances. "What do you mean?"_

 _"I expected Kageyama-kun."_

 _"Oh, yeah." One of them said. "Yeah, Kageyama-kun's great and all but he looked a bit too scary to approach. Besides, doesn't Hinata-kun give you that refreshing aura?"_

 _"Like sunny days, right?" Yachi pointed out surprising even herself when she realized. Her face glow a shade of red._

 _"Hinata-kun is much easier to approach."_

 _"He's kinda cute too."_

 _"Yeah, so what if he's short? Tall guys are overrated anyway."_

 _For some reason Yachi felt herself blushing more from all the girls' comments._

 _"Oh, Yachi-san's crushing on him too?" That almost made her implode._

 _"No, I uh, I mean, yeah. I like him but not that way." Yachi said that but there was something nagging on the back of her mind. She just decided she consider him a very important friend. Half-baked feelings might just get in the way of everything. Yachi giggled at the thought._

 _"So you'll introduce us?"_

 _"Eh?"_

* * *

The first year manager just slapped her palm to her forehead.

"I'm really sorry. It's my fault."

"Don't worry, you didn't mean any harm." Sugawara assured her.

"Eh, you mean girls these days like shorter guys?" Nishinoya's shirt was grabbed from behind by the captain to prevent him for causing any more ruckus.

"Tch." Kageyama glared at the manager. Yachi yelped even though she's aware that Kageyama was just being a child (he still looked intimidating).

"Now, now." Sugawara mediated.

"Anyway, we got to stop this." Kageyama said flatly and proceeded to help Hinata. Yachi and the others followed him to make sure Kageyama don't go overboard. They could see Hinata attempted to practice his serves but his strained concentration prevented him to get the ball on the other side of the net much more to even hit any of the empty bottles on the other side. Nevertheless, the girls never failed to tease and cheer him on.

Kageyama approached the girls and the determination he had earlier seemed to disappeared. Still, it didn't deter him from his goal.

"Hey you're disturbing Hinata's practice. Be quiet if you want to stay or please leave." Kageyama was red-faced from multiple reason while saying this. It still gave him his desired effect. The girls silenced down and went to Yachi.

"That was harsh of Kageyama." Nishinoya commented. The rest of the team took this as cue to end their break and went to their drills.

"Definitely KageHina, don't you think so, Yachi-chan?" One of the girls whispered.  
"Eh?"

Captain Sawamura and Sugawara who heard and understood what the girls meant just bit their lip and did not say anything.

End.

* * *

 **(A/N: The idea was from a friend and I'm writing by request. But I did enjoy writing it.)**


	2. Taller Half of the Oddball Duo

**_The Taller Half of the Oddball Duo_**

The orange shade of the sunset and the crow's black feathers looked splendidly well together. Hinata Shoyo, a student of Karasuno High School, randomly thought one late afternoon.

Volleyball practice ended for that day. The boy let out a sigh, not because he's physically exhausted, but because he received dozens more of insults and lashes than usual from his grumpy volleyball partner, Kageyama. He figured that the grouchy setter was always like that. The idiot was a serious guy, too serious. And if Kageyama wasn't as passionate in volleyball as himself, Hinata would never get himself near the grouch.

The little orange head continued to sigh again and again until Yachi, one of their managers decided to ask the boy of his predicament. She felt a bit worried and he did offer to walk her to her bus station, maybe he needed some attention.

"Tired, Hinata-kun? You can go on ahead." Not that the walking distance mattered. Hinata had to ride his bike all the way home. Yachi thought as she had fleeting look at the bike the boy was pushing with him.

"Nah, I'm alright." Hinata let out another sigh. Deep inside, Yachi wanted him to stay longer. (Assassins from Kiyoko-senpai's fans are less likely to strike if you have a companion after all.)

"I'm just thinking that I wish Kageyama-kun and I were friends, you know." The boy felt scratching his nape. (-kun?)

"Eh? I thought you two were close?" Yes, no one would call you insults constantly if you weren't close enough as friends right? That's how twisted friend ship really is. And if they were really throwing insults at each other out of spite, then would they be able to work together as a combo?

"We may look like we work well together, but that's just because Kageyama likes volleyball as much as I do. I guess, yeah, you could say that we're great partners. Other than that and outside the team we're practically strangers."

"Really?" In Yachi's mind, those two were inseparable but when she thought more about it, the only times she saw the two boys outside of volleyball was when she decided to help them with their academics. And that's also because they were only driven by volleyball to study. They didn't want to lag behind their academics so much so they could attend training camps and practice matches. "I guess you're kind of right." Yachi relented.

"No use feeling bad about it now. I'll just try being friendlier with him tomorrow!"

"You can do it Hinata!"

The next day, Hinata forgot all about being friendly at the raven-haired and started out their morning competing who'd be the first one to the clubroom for morning practice. Not that it wasn't their daily routine to do so. Orange team won today's skirmish. The definite 'tch' from Kageyama brought back the fact that he was suppose to be nicer to the grumpy setter from now on.

"H-hey! You'll get me next time!" Hinata shouted cheerily without thinking and unsurprisingly Kageyama took it in offense.

"Are you mocking me, dumbass?" The taller boy grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and lifted him to eye-level. Hinata quickly thought of something before he panics.

"Sorry, Kageyama-san." With this Kageyama only raised an eyebrow and let him go.

"What's up with you?" The taller boy who still looked crossed entered the clubroom.

 _I blew it!_

On morning practice, Hinata reassessed why would he even wanted to be friends with Kageyama. Their combinations were working enough given their current partnership. Did he want less insults? Did he even wanted to hang out with Mr. Grumpy-puss off practice? Maybe if they're closer, their teamwork would improve. Hinata shook his head to brush off those ulterior motives. Did you really need a reason to be friends with someone?

And the ball hit him squarely in the face.

"What was that for, Bakeyama?"

"You weren't paying attention Dumbass Hinata."

And it was another week later when Hinata offered to escort Yachi to the bus stop because of another late practice session.

"No luck, Yachi-san. The guy just can't take a hint that I'm only trying to be friendly."

Yachi let out a giggle. "You're still on that? Everyone thinks you two are best friends, though."

"But that doesn't mean anything..." Hinata puffed his cheeks.

"Alright, calm down. Hm... I'm not an expert in making friends myself but I could share you some tips if you want me to."

Hinata, the ever so hyperactive boy looked like a dog wagging his tail as he nodded his head.

"I met a close friend by having lunches with them."

"Eh? But Kageyama and I do that already, then after that we practice volleyball." (Right...)

"What about talking about a common interest?"

"We talk about volleyball all the time." (Of course you would.)

"Er.. I guess talking about boys?" Yachi followed. She realized her mistake and took cover to defend herself in case Hinata-kun took offence of what she just suggested. He might even leave her here alone in the darkness of the night, where creatures undistinguishable lurks to take her to their lair...

"Oh, you mean guys from the other teams?"

Yachi refrained herself from slapping her forehead.

"Er... nevermind. How about talking about girls instead?" Yachi can't believe she's suggesting this to a high school boy. This should be a normal topic for them.

"Girls? You're a girl Yachi-san. You're alright with guys talking about girls and-" It was a rare sight for Yachi to see Hinata blush because of something like this. He's a high school boy after all.

After enlightened by Yachi-sensei's teachings. Hinata now ventured to attempt to apply every theory on Guy Friendship 101 with Kageyama. He didn't have any chances yet but he managed his best to voice out compliments to Kageyama more often. Although, it is volleyball after all, vocalizing things like that is only a minor detail in between teammates.

Then, came the in-between classes periods. He found chances where he would meet Kageyama and give him hand waves. In one particular event he actually crossed paths with the taller half of the oddball duo. He gave his friendliest smile (which came naturally for him) and raised his fist towards the other boy.

"Kageyama!" he exclaimed. It was loud enough for classmates and other students alike to take a glance at them. Hinata whose fist was still on the air waited for Kageyama's response.

"A 'quick' signal? I'll give you plenty of those later. Stop being weird idiot."

 _Denied!_

Kageyama mistakes the 'bro-fist' as one of their customized quick signals.

"Dumbass!" Hinata shouted at the retreating boy.

"Right back at you dumbass!" And that exchange with insults of limited vocabulary. Hinata continuously fail at becoming friends with Kageyama for another week.

"YACCHAN!" Hinata whined. The only times Hinata dubbed Yachi by that was when his dialogues was mixed with desperation.

"Why just not talk to him about it?" Yachi squirmed at the adorable puppy face Hinata was pulling right now. Would Hinata be weirded out and ditch her if she dared pinch his cheeks. But for some reason she felt that facing the creatures of the night wouldn't be so bad if she did that.

"Oh, why didn't I think of that!? Thanks, Yachi-san! You're the best!" Hinata shook her arms so harshly that she thought for a second that they would pluck out.

* * *

And that was the plan if Hinata had the enough attention span to process it in his long-term memory. The plan of just asking Kageyama about it melted with the excitement of the week-long event Karasuno High School held. Hinata wasn't aware that Karasuno High held such events every year.

Their volleyball club participated in a relay race held as the events' opener where they used a volleyball as the baton. They came in second, narrowly beating the soccer team. (The first was the track team, of course.)

Then, their classes had games against each other. In all the excitement and adrenaline stimulated by the event day, Hinata forgot all about his plan. He was effectively distracted by the volleyball event. The event where he wasn't allowed to participate since he's part of the Boy's Volleyball club. The prospect of hitting one of his classmate's tosses somehow thrilled him.

"Calm down, Hinata."

"Why am I not allowed to play?"

"Your kind of a regular at the club, right? You'll overpower the non-clun members. Besides, your club will play whoever class wins this mini-tournament... And crush them."

Apparently, the prospect of crushing the class who'll win the mini-tournament participated by non-volleyball club members gave him such a thrill that he didn't realize that he was being dragged by Kageyama.

"Here.". Hinata snapped in his reverie as he perceived Kageyama's familar voice. It sounded smug.

"Nice one, Kageyama-kun!"

"I-3 is now leading on the scavenger hunt event."

At the knowledge of another class winning something sparked the competitiveness in the baggage that was Hinata. "Hey, not fair! I'm from Class I-1. Don't just drag people around, Bakeyama."

"So it wasn't a fault, then. Kageyama does have friends. Well, they're on the same club after all." At the comment of a random girl from Kageyama's class, Hinata took the piece of paper from Kageyama's hand.

'A friend from another class.'

Hinata stood there and stared at the taller boy for a while as the event continued.

"A friend from another class?" Hinata repeated the writing as he suddenly remembered his plan. He failed to realized that he was staring Kageyama with an incredulous look.

"What dumbass?" Kageyama's annoyed expression warped into something familiar to Hinata. It looked alike of that expression he had when they were defeated by Aoba Josai last Inter-High.

"Oh, I'm sorry for being presumptuous about being friends... It's just class rivalvry.. so yeah." Kageyama said lamely as he made a retreat, looking kind of embarrassed and disappointed. How Hinata could tell from Kageyama's retreating back was anyone's guess.

 _EH?_

Kageyama already acknowledges him as a friend? And Kageyama thought that he was denying the friendship? Hinata didn't think of anything else. He sprinted down to Kageyama and caught him by the waist. He felt somewhat giddy at the information that he mind that he was being juvenile.

"Bakeyama!" Hinata didn't realize that Kageyama would want to be friends with him. If that friendship between them was glued together by volleyball, rivalry or whatever. He didn't care anymore.

"Kageyama! I'm disappointed that you used our friendship for your personal advantage." Hinata felt relief when the disappointment departed from the raven's face and returned to his usual frown.

"Fine, I'll buy you a drink. Like I had a choice, Yachi-san wasn't around.- Would you let go of me, weirdo dumbass?"

* * *

 **(A/N: And done! I hope I got their characters right. I finally got those randomness out of my system.**

 **PS. Reviews will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading.)**


End file.
